#an'set

The trip had been meant for relaxing. In part, it had been. The first night had been spent vigorously breaking in the den they’d chosen to stay in. The next day, An’Set had made her pancakes. Simple but one of her favorites. Her poor husband was a baby about the cold but he showed little of it, other than bundling himself up in warm clothing.

They wandered in the snow, looking for a certain sort of flower and for a small enough pine tree that they could drag about. A playful snow fight ensued and ended with them nearly being crushed by the tree as An’Set had chopped it down far too vigorously, spurred on by his wife.

It was that night, as the pair readied themselves to head for the springs, that everything began to go south. Spiked hot chocolate, meats, cheeses, grapes, and crackers were all bundled up in a basket along with themselves in heavy fur coats and clothes. Reveria also carried with her the red lantern, an object she was never without any more.  The walk wasn’t so bad, along the resorts heated paths that lead to the hot springs. As they arrived, the druid kicked her boots free and let the fur coat fall free to the ground about her. They were alone here after all. Her nude form slid into the springs, a sigh of contentment loosing from her lips as she felt the bubbling warm water about her. 

It wasn’t long before An’Set joined her and the pair leaned back to stare at the stars above.  "I had always thought the stars were the most important thing to me... As time has gone on... I feel her touch less and less. Which, is not a pity party. More of a matter of fact." Touching the water's surface with a finger, the steam swirled to reveal the form of one of her spectral spiders skittering across the surface. "Focuses shift, beliefs change, not something I ever thought I would see happen to myself."

An’Set looked to her and let out a slow breath. "Elune is always going to be looking down at you, Reveria. In the darkest of times, no matter how far you walk away from her. Trust me, I've been in the dark." He stared up at the stars. "I don't think she's meant to solve our every problem... but she does watch."

Behind them, the red lantern began to glow and a chill ran down Reveria’s spine. Dread gnawed away at her as she turned suddenly and saw the light. Her eyes grew wide, knowing the lantern didn’t glow for just any reason. 

Something was here with them. 

“The lantern!” She pushed herself from the water reaching out to grasp it and lift it, raising it to see what was out there. 

She didn’t need it. 

Pinhole eyes stared at her from the darkness and terror consumed the druid. The shadowy form of the Sleeper gave an eerie tilt of it’s head as it focused on Reveria. “Set... It’s the...” Her words stopped mid sentence even as her right eye began to twitch harshly. 

'You... surrender... every time'

A tear rolled down her cheek as she fought against the terror boiling within her. “I... do not... surrender...” Her words seemed almost hollow, even despite their defiant nature. 

‘You... are weak.’ 

He showed her the worst of the worst-- caged on death row. 

‘You... are nothing.’ 

Her rotting corpse, a lonely and decaying grave on the side of the mountains. 

‘They... will not... miss you.’ 

Flashes of Eilithe, angry and saying foolish things to her. 

‘We... can give you... purpose.’ 

The visions were so much worse than she was ready for and a whimper sounded from her throat as tears began to gush down her cheeks. Even still, she was trying to fight, trembling and shaking as she fought against the Sleeper’s influence. 

The lantern grew brighter, and luckily An'Set couldn't take his eyes off that blinding red light. Slowly, Reveria felt hands all over her, gripping her-- sliding their hands over her eyes. The voices of the Red Web whispered. 

"Do not look." 

"Stay here." 

"You are the spider, not the insect."

As the lantern grew brighter, Reveria shuddered violently, like she was having a seizure, though her eyes were clearly trying to pry themselves over to gaze on the red light. "I w-will... Nev-ver... Ser...Ser... Serve... Y-you..." The defiance in her voice was unmistakable as she seethed at the Sleeper. The hands of the Red Web shielded her gaze, leaving the world around her eerily silent until that voice rang out again. 

‘Every choice... Every stroke up current... is designed. Your choice... will never... be your own. You... are shackled. You... are chained. You will kneel.’ 

The next flash was a truth that might not have been so unlikely. Eilithe, a crown like the golden sun being placed upon her head. Not by any god-- but by the people of Dead Sun themselves. 

‘You... were born... to serve another.’ 

The red light thrummed, the voices chanted in unison rattling through the snow. It was unintelligible whispers and murmurs which seemed to stop the advances.

She shook, she trembled, her fists raised into the air to slam into the snow covered ground. 

"I WILL NOT! I WAS NOT!" 

As she screamed at the Sleeper, her skin hardened and blackened along her cheeks, along her back, along her fore arms and even along her thighs. 

The chanting voices seemed to keep her in place, leaving her breathing hard and powerful. Reveria's exhaled breaths left a chittered whisper on the wind as she pushed air from her lungs. 

A hard pulse of his magic from the Red Lantern collapsed the Sleeper into nothing, and whether he'd gone because of the light or because the time was no longer good, he was gone.

The druid collapsed forward, half in the water as she supported her weight on her palms. She seemed to be crying, tears were certainly falling into the snow beneath her. A quick glance was given to An'Set and at least for a blink of an eye... She had four eyes.    "It cares not for your defiance." 

"Thrashing in a cage." 

"Your rage only feeds it" 

The Red Web warned her.

The light dimmed and the pair were once more alone. 

---------

Back in Dead Sun, just before the training session that always took place on Thursdays, Reveria made her way to the barracks. Wardens of the harbor greeted her with nods and bowed heads, nothing so formal as a salute though. They were no military after all. 

Her feet carried her to the bunker like structure that was her office and once she unlocked it and shut the door behind her, she found her chair behind the desk and sat heavily, leaning back with closed eyes. There was a calm to being in her office after the trauma she’d felt not but two nights before. 

Eventually, her eyes slowly peeled open, one at a time. She glanced around the office before doing a sort of double take on the window. The ‘UwU’ sigil was still scrawled upon it which got a scowl from the druid. 

“What the actual fuck.” 

She scrawled the symbol on a piece of paper before finding a rag and obliterating it from the window. Either someone was being funny or her shit show was far from over. Whatever it might be, she pushed it from her mind for the moment and turned to head back out to barracks. 

A warden soon approached. “The caches have been placed first warden. The training is ready.” 

Reveria gave a nod in return. “Thank you. Good.” 

With that, she headed off to have a hopefully stress free night of training with those that called the harbor their own. 

-------------

“And you are certain?” Endessa’s voice rang in melody. 

“You are the most suitable for this task,” An’Set answered. “He enjoys women, elves in particular. Sister cannot risk dirtying her hands-- this came directly off of the list that Aunt Elsennia crafted.”

“Pity, isn’t it? Once all her work has been carried out, do you suppose our leaders will have ceased their arguing?” 

“No.”

Endessa answered him in a hum, as though she agreed with me. “Well, then help your grandmother, my hair, twist it up.” 

By the time her hair was fixed up into a long, but more manageable pony tail, it had been half an hour. 

“Impractical,” An’Set offered.

“Impetuous.” The elder Kaldorei answered with a smile.

“Do you remember everything from Loren’s dossier?” 

“Goddess, An’Set- do not be cruel to an old woman. My mind and body are sharp as ever. And your sister--did you tell her anything?”

“Plausible deniability,” he grunt slipping a red comb into the crown of Endessa’s hair to off-set the white. 

“Not ever the target’s connection to Shadeala Moonsong?”

“Irrelevant.” He offered his arm to Endessa, helping her to her feet from in front of the vanity. “Please do not create a mess, grandmother.” 

Endessa scoffed, tucking her arms into her sleeves. “Please, you wound me. Ya’Til-Anath, grandson.” And this she was gone, out into the night.

There was something eldritch in the way Endessa walked, her head up, regal posture. It was not a walk- it was a glide, as though she floated across the dirty streets of Boralus. 

The rain did not seem to bother her, though she looked about the streets as though she was lost. She’d been waiting for an hour for her target to break out of the bar, and the opportunity arose when the man stepped out, alone.

His grubby hand rolled a cigarette and he glued his eyes on Endessa as she came to a stop to look down either street. “Lost, dove?” he asked with a grunt of a laugh. “Let Henry tell you tha’ way-- know this city betta’ than a Proudmoore!” 

Endessa covered her lips with her sleeve, chuckling softly. “Oh would you? I wished to find a place to rest for the evening, but I’m terribly lost. Is this Upton?” 

Henry let out a guffaw, “No, m’lady it’s about the farthest from it. How’s about I show you tha’ way, maybe give ya a tour of the real gems of Boralus.” He grinned, offfering out an arm, which she took. 

The thing about bad men, was that they often looked like every other man. Henry wasn’t any different. 

Her mind shuffled through the dossier:

Henry James Ruger. Human, Thirty-nine.

Then skipped down:

Trafficking persons numbered in the thousands

Then the names, leagues of names of elves, humans-- varied in age. All labeled now, as ‘missing’ to the Alliance or Horde respectively. 

When they turned down an alley, Henry’s hand dropped down her back and dangerously inappropriate, onto her bottom. “Could make a stop here, whatcha say? A fava’ for a fava’?” 

Endessa’s typically kind eyes grew cold- it was, perhaps a more natural look-- one that all Duskbringer’s possessed. “Do you know what I find the most disgusting about you?”

Henry blinked, as though perplexed by the question. He did not get a second chance to respond before Endessa’s eyes pulsed dark lavender and she whipped her arm around. Out of her sleeve a knife flew and looped around him to stab Henry in the back. Before he could shout, Endessa was in front of him, her hand clapped over his mouth before she threw her weight to slam him up against the alley wall.

 “It’s that you’re handsome, for a human-- handsome and charming and you’ve used your beauty this way. Now,” she swung out her air, knives filing out of her sleeve and hovering around her. Each was inscribed with arcane runes, and each responded to the Seal Maker’s will. “Tell me where your ships make birth, and when next they move. The more detail, the quicker your death.” 

“Y-YOU CU--” He began, when she let her hand off, but was silenced when a second knife buried itself in his forearm. Endessa hummed.

“And if you give me something on Moonsong? Well, then perhaps you’ll have a good death.”

When she was finished, Endessa pulled, in total, nineteen knives out of Henry James Ruger’s body. Off of his body, she took everything of value-- coin purse, rings, and identification papers. Whomever found his body would likely think that Henry had brushed, unfortunately, with some maniac thief. And Endessa, she was back through in Stormwind without a trace left behind her. 

The day had been spent with Eilithe and the kids, even a good portion of it had Kurel being weirdly complimentary to Reveria. Her hair had been done in braids, Make up aplenty had been applied to cover the bruises and wounds she had from the previous night. 

As she’d been sitting in the chair getting her hair done along side Eilithe, Threshad had come in and delivered her an envelope from An’Set. Her soon to be husband was off with Feril, the druid imagined he was puking in a corner somewhere with nervousness. The thought brought an amused smile to her lips as she had opened the envelope. It wasn’t the thought of him puking that made her smile but the fact he was so nervous over it. 

Inside the envelope was a black stone, shaped like a crescent moon and a letter from An’Set explaining what it was. A Duskbringer family heirloom that he had carried ever since his mother, Meridianna, had given it to him. She’d been given it when she was married and now... It was to be Reveria’s. After she was dressed, she shared a few moments with Eilonwy and Karkah, letting both girls see the stone as she explained who Meridianna was. 

Soon everyone was sitting around a bar in the nearly empty Wheel, Jam’voree and Eilonwy stealing some time with the adults before the ceremony. Eilonwy shared whispers with Kurel and then wandered over to Reveria. “It okie auntie, the one before were stupid. Uncle An’Set gonna stay with you forever!” A slow blink had followed as she asked the girl who had filled her head with things like that. Of course Eilonwy was gifted and was vague at best sometimes, leaving Reveria wondering just who had talked to her about such things. Not that it bothered her but if it was Kurel, that meant he actually paid her some form of compliment and she didn’t know how to take that. 

Before long... The moment arrived and she was walking to that platform over the lake, the waterfalls thundering around them. She stood waiting in the back, taking deep breaths as Eilithe eyed her and spoke encouraging words. No’Vindere stood in the center, An’Set to one side of her. Feril wasn’t too far off, playing the role of groomsman. Soon the harp played and Reveria and Eilithe made their way up the aisle, the druid smiling at all the people she knew who had come out. 

It was a short ceremony, No’vindere called on the goddess Elune to bless the couple in their journey forward. An’Set and Reveria were then encouraged to to share vows with one another and both chose to whisper them. Reveria was, after all, not trying to give Kurel An’Diel ammunition to used against her new husband. Her words to him were sweet, a promise to always be there and always give him whatever he wanted. His were much the same, a confession of his love and his plan to stay with her forever. As they stood apart, Eilithe and Feril tied their hands together with ribbon and No’vindere proclaimed them married. They shared a kiss, the first she had as Reveria Duskbringer. 

For as short as the ceremony was, the reception was the place to be. Half of Dead Sun was there at least, any that called An’Set or Reveria friend had come and that.... that was a lot of people. As An’Set and Reveria snuck off to get the night rolling with some questionable substances, Velerodra was seen talking to Reveria’s sister Dianesh. Kurel was playing drums on stage, even as Meridianna Duskbringer fist fought with Endessa Duskbringer. Seraanna watched on with Sylirae, keeping an eye on the kids running wild. 

Many people just drank and danced, enjoying the night and celebrating in style. There were tense moments, such as Reveria meeting Meridianna for the first time, or An’Set meeting Dianesh. All in all though, it was a wild and crazy night, filled with laughter and raucous sounds of celebration. At some point, everyone began to wander off, leaving An’Set and Reveria behind for a moment of quiet to themselves. A harp played and An’Set spun his new wife gently in a slow dance, eyes looking over the lingering few of the crowd, muttering sweet nothings to Reveria all the while. 

Eventually, the crowd was gone and An’Set scooped Reveria up and took her home. The kids were with the other half of the Duskbringers and so the house was their own for the night. He took her in nearly every possible place, marking her and the house as his own. When their frantic and feverish rutting was finally over, they were collapsed in the bed, covered in bites, scratches, and more as signs they were each other’s. Even if it was a short night’s sleep... Reveria slept soundly and happily, laying across her husband’s chest.